Percy Jackson and the Olympians – First Two Episodes Review

One of the most highly anticipated projects of 2023 has been Percy Jackson and the Olympians produced by Disney+. Every new piece of information that’s been released about this show seems to get the fanbase more and more excited. As someone who neither read the book series nor saw the original movies, I have no context going into this show. This means that book accuracy will not play into this review series at all. 

Technical Elements

One of the things that is very common amongst teen shows, whether it be teen dramas or Young Adult dystopian fiction, is that the casting is not age appropriate. Almost always grown adults play teens. Percy Jackson seems to have corrected this; all of our main kids are just that; kids. Now this is somewhat required if this series is going to span multiple years. Similar to Harry Potter, they had to cast young enough that no one was going to be 30 playing 18. 

The budget for the show was somewhere between $12 and $15 million per episode. This certainly shows in the VFX. Now we aren’t sure how much of the effects were practical and how much of it was computer generation but it really looks great. That said the cinematography does follow the recent trend of being far too dark. Just because something takes place at night doesn’t mean it should feel like we are watching it in the pitch black. We need to go back to lighting scenes properly. 

Story

As for the story it only took about 30 seconds to get me emotionally invested in this boy. The dynamic between the gods and the children is great. The characterizations feel exactly as a Greek mythology enthusiast would hope. The exposition was perfectly placed and executed. Nothing was word heavy, there were no information dumps, everything was delivered to Percy and the audience in short but educational bursts. 

Annabeth being Athena’s kid is so incredible. Are’s kids being aggressive and mean also makes a lot of sense. The characteristics of the gods are reflected in their children and that is just good writing. The first two episodes are an amazing thesis statement for the rest of the series. 

Biggest takeaways

Percy is just a sweet little boy who needs to be protected at all costs.

Luke and Annabeth are the best. 

The world and the system so perfectly fits Greek Mythology and it is a perfect backdrop for the hero’s journey. 

Overall the series is off to an amazing start and they set up the story perfectly. Its easy to see where the story is going while still leaving plenty of room for surprises. The character dynamics and interactions are very well written and fun to watch. We are looking at an 8 episode season so we have 6 episodes to go. This seems short but without knowing how long the book is I can’t tell if that’s good coverage or not.